The Stolen Diadem
by Lovesherox
Summary: In a world full of demigods, monsters, and of course us wimpy mortals, love proves to overcome all. Leo Valdez is faced with his past when a girl shows up, a girl he fell in love with. Watch as their lives collide yet again in order to save the world (again) from a war of the gods. Will they save the world in time, or will blood spill over the thrones of the gods?
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter 1**_

_**Haiden**_

Fire encased the walls of the workshop. All of the works of art made of metal slowly melted in the heat. The smoke filled my lungs. It took everything I had to keep from getting myself out of there and abandoning my mission. But, I couldn't. I had a job to do. I needed to find the person who was working in here before the fire mysteriously started. I was given a gift that allowed me to encourage death. No. Not this time. This time I was going to stop it.

I ran around the area, frantically searching for the woman. I opened every cabinet, dug through every corner. I prayed to the gods that I could find her. They must have been in a crappy mood because the smoke only grew thicker, making it even harder than it already was to see. Finally, crawling through the haze, I saw her.

She was trying to escape the flames that surrounded her and lapped at her clothing. She coughed violently as the dense smoke entered her lungs. It was suffocating her. The pain I felt for her increased. If she died, she would leave her eight-year-old son behind in a world that didn't care for him. There was no way in Hell that I would ever let that happen.

I gingerly stepped into her view, carefully avoiding fire and metal scraps. Her eyes widened as I came into her view. For a second, I wondered how I looked to her. My shoulder length black hair was in knots, and my dress was covered in soot and was ripped. My feet were also covered in dirt and machine grease. My eyes were the only things that allowed the woman to tell who I was. What color were they? How was I supposed to know? I didn't have a mirror. Besides, they changed color and I had no idea what the colors meant. Figuring it out meant hours in front of a mirror and I was not looking forward to that.

I stretched out my small hand toward her. "C'mon," I said. "nobody deserves to die this way." She slowly reached for me, then paused.

"What about Leo? Mijo..." She turned the best she could toward the door that was stuck fast, and I heard a quiet tapping. The boy was tapping out something on the door.

I shook the tears out of my eyes. "We don't have time! If you ever want to see him again you'll come with me now, before we both die! I'm telling you Esperanza, I do _NOT _wana die yet!" She grabbed my hand and I spirited us out of the flaming workshop. Before we disappeared, I caught a glimpse of Leo, a short Latino boy with brown, curly hair. Tears streamed down his face as he continued to tap out the same message on the door over and over.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2**_

_**Haiden**_

I gained consciousness to a searing pain in my right shoulder, right side, and head. Struggling to pull myself up into a sitting position, I cradled my head in my left hand. The pain prevented me to glance at my surroundings. Once I managed to shift my head, I saw that there were shards of glass scattered across the street. I quickly became aware of the warm and sticky feeling under my palms. Slowly pulling my hand away from my head, I dreaded what would be on them. Dark red blood was splattered across my hand and below me where I lay. A puddle was forming under the body I spotted that was trapped under the wreck of a black SUV a few meters away.

I did my best to stand. Evaluating the damage done to my body, I found a deep gash in my right side that had caused most of the blood. By the amount of blood on my left hand, I assumed that I had a pretty bad cut on my head as well. I attempted to remember what had happened.

As I had popped (yes popped) into the scene a few moments ago, the SUV sped past a red light and slammed into the convenience store that was about 10 feet to the left of me. To my convenience (see what I did there) the glass shattered, throwing me into the street. I was thrown against a cement parking block, and slide across it, leaving the gash in my side. I landed on my shoulder and smashed my head against the pavement. I was knocked unconscious.

Stumbling over to the car wreck, I grabbed the cold, bloody, mangled body of a middle-aged woman, and pulled her out of the wreckage. About a dozen bottles rolled out after I pulled her free. I dragged her to the sidewalk and laid her on her back. Closing her eyes, I leaned forward and whispered in her ear. She slowly started to disintegrate into golden dust that flew up into the wind, seeking a path to the Underworld. _Have fun in Hell,_ I thought.

Sending her soul on exhausted me. I sat down hard on the sidewalk. I felt nauseous and uneasy. Black spots in my vision started to appear as I heard sirens from the police heading my way. I fell back into unconsciousness.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3**_

_**Haiden**_

I awoke to the feeling of warm but scratchy blankets around me. I was laying on a not-so-comfy bed. There was some sort of light on and it annoyed me because when I tried to open my eyes it hurt. I started to panic. _This is it_, I thought. _I'm dying. Or maybe I'm already dead. Oh, c'mon! I never even wrote a will! This sucks. At least I can tell myself so one person knows._ "First, my rubix cube shall go to Aleks. My clothes shall go to Aleks. Wait, no. He has no need for a girl's clothes. Oh well. My house, however, won't go to Aleks 'cause he could be a bitch. He should go live in a cardboard box on the end of some street where little kids throw rocks and bad tasting candy at him. Like Twizzlers. No one likes Twizzlers. Except the sour ones. Those are ok."

Snickering reached my somewhat damaged ear drums from somewhere near by. I slowly opened my eyes halfway until I got used to the bright light. Fully opening my eyes after a few moments, I searched the room with my eyes since I didn't want to move my head. In the corner of the room was a tall, pale teenage guy with a Bieber style hair cut (current Bieber). Although, with his black hair and amazingly handsome facial features, he looked way better than Bieber (I feel like I started a war somewhere, but if you saw this guy I'm sure you'd agree with me). He wore a dark blue T-shirt under a black and gold high school football letter jacket. It said DEMIGODS RULE! on the back instead of a last name. His black pinstriped skinny jeans and red converse oddly enough, didn't clash with the rest of his clothes. A silver locket was fastened around his neck. He was gazing at me with a weird smirk on his face.

"What?" I asked defensively.

He started to openly mock the objects on my will. I felt my face heat up immediately.

"How dare you mock me! I never gave you permission to eavesdrop on my conversations...with myself. Besides..." Loosing most of my anger, I pouted, pulling the covers over half of my face. "How long have you been standing there anyway?" He beamed.

"I just got here actually. But I've been here long enough to hear... what was that? Your will or something?"

I sunk even lower into the bed. "I thought I was dead..."

His laughter bounced off the walls. He strolled over and sat on the edge of the bed by my feet. "Sadly, you aren't. You're just going to be stuck with me for a little while longer."

"Just a little?"

He took my hand and squeezed it. "I'll stay as long as you need me to. I mean if anything happened to you, mom and dad, they'd kill me. I'm not even exaggerating. Not even a little."

I smiled. "We wouldn't want that now, will we?"

He pressed his free hand gently against my forehead. "How are you feeling?"

"My head hurts."

He chuckled. "I bet. You look like you took quite a beating. What happened anyway?"

I took a deep breath and explained everything.

Not even 5 seconds after I had finished, the door slammed open and in strolled Celeste Aberny. She flipped her shiny blonde hair over her shoulder and flashed a massive, perfect, lipstick free smile at us. She sported a floral knee length dress. The part that covered her shoulders and back was made up of white lace. Her white stiletto heels clicked against the tile floor.

Throwing her arms out wide, she exclaimed, "The party has arrived!"

I winced at her voice. "You're so loud..."

Her face softened. "Sorry hun. I can't help it, I'm happy you're ok." She came over to my bed and leaned over to rest her small hand on Alek's which was on mine. Behind her, two other guys wandered in after her. One of them rushed to my side. He had short, spiked chocolate brown hair and kind eyes. The other lagged behind but eventually came to my bedside. This guy had a military style haircut, his hair being a reddish brown and his eyes were light green and full of pride. The reddish brown haired guy spoke first.

"You look like shit."

I snorted. "I would think I look better than you." Ryan laughed and patted my shoulder, which by the way, hurt. Justin gently moved Ryan's hand and gave him a stern look.

"We should just let her rest, she's tired. We shouldn't have barged in here."

"We just got here, I mean c'mon. You always ruin my fun."

Celeste moved them apart. "Justin's right Ryan. She's still hurt, you idiot." Dragged the three boys out of the room, she quietly closed the door behind her.

"Well, that was odd." I stated simply.

"You aren't used to expecting their grand entrances, then their quick-to-leave-the-party attitude. Even when the party just started."

I laughed softly because laughing loudly hurt every part of my body. Aleks moved my bangs from my face.

"You should sleep. You've had a rough day."

"So I've heard." I mumbled, drifting off. I heard his small chuckle before I closed my eyes and fell asleep, the feeling of his hand still on mine.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapter 4**_

_**Leo**_

There was drool on my blueprints when I woke up.

I rubbed my face groggily, attempting to register where I was and what I was doing. Well obviously I had been sleeping, so the part of what I was doing was kind of easy to figure out. I found that my eyes and cheeks were wet so I wiped my face with my arms. _Geez,_ I thought. _I haven't had that dream in a while. _The dream of my mom dying in a workshop of fire. But there was something off about it. The part where she didn't die was new to me. There was a girl there with her who _saved_ her. The strange part was that I recognized the girl.

I shook my head. "No. No no no no. It couldn't have been _her_. …Could it?" I mumbled to myself. Opening my left palm, there was a crumpled picture that I had been holding. Smoothing it out on the edges of the desk, I glanced at it. My mom stood in front of our old house, her arms around my shoulders. My arms held a small girl with midnight black hair and a pretty, smiling face. She held me back.

"No…" I murmured. "It just, it just couldn't have been _you_…" I traced the girl's face with a finger until the door of Bunker 9 opened with a bang. I hastily hid the picture in the front pocket of my pants and pretended to work on something.

"…And so I said that they were being RIDICULOUS." A man's voiced boomed throughout the workspace.

"Of course they were, breaking your system." A girl's voice followed his, not quite as loud but not girly either.

_What system?_ I thought but continued to feign working.

"We should get them back somehow."

"How exactly?"

"I don't know! I'll think of something, then we strike." I could basically hear the girl's eyes roll.

"Hey Leo!" I turned my head to spot a tall buff guy striding to me. He clapped his large hand on my shoulder. The force almost threw me out of my seat.

"Hey Ashetn." I spoke, rolling my shoulder. He laughed.

"Come on now, you don't seem like Leo." He exclaimed while flicking my face. "Cheer up! It's a wonderful day for creating things to harm others!"

"Cheer up?" I asked. "I don't need to cheer up. I'm the cheeriest person in here." The girl, Eriee, rolled her eyes at her boyfriend. Again.

"What he meant to say is that he hopes you don't mind if I hang around for a bit. I don't want him going off to start a fight with the Hermes kids." She added. Ashten turned on her.

"Start a fight? I'm not going to start a fight!"

"Yeah sure, I know hun." All this bickering was giving Leo a headache.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chapter 5**_

_**Leo**_

Ashten and Eriee continued to argue. I attempted to ignore them, but it was difficult. I just wanted them to leave but they wouldn't.

I liked both of them. Although we were technically brothers, Ashten was more like an Ares kid than a Vulcan kid (yes Vulcan; I said technically didn't I). He was tall (I don't know maybe 6 feet?), and really, really obnoxious at times. His girlfriend, Eriee, was an Apollo kid who didn't care much about fighting. When Annabeth told me about the little war between the Ares cabin and the Apollo cabin, she said that Eriee had no part in it. Smart girl.

Eriee was the mediator in some ways. She never got in fights that she started (but she sure as Hades himself could finish them); she rarely argued. Except with her boyfriend that is. Although they argued (a lot) they're still together.

_Speaking of arguin_g, I thought. _They're still at it? _Ignoring their bickering, I paid more attention to my desk. _For a loving couple they sure can't shut up._ I sighed; my hand hovered over the pocket where I had hidden the picture.

"I don't think I've ever been so lovesick in my life. I know I fall for almost every girl I see, but I know that she's always in the back of my mind." I mumbled to myself. I felt them looking at the back of my head. Some whispering was going on, then footsteps. Silence._ They must have left. I bet Eriee dragged Ashten out to give me time. She's always good at paying attention to people. _

I dug the picture out of my pocket and held it against my chest. Face planting on the desk, I sat there for a long time.

"Love sick?" I asked myself. "What could be worse?"


	6. Chapter 6

_**Chapter 6**_

_**Haiden**_

____According to the doctor, I had suffered a massive head injury, ruptured an artery, and broken a couple ribs. Whatever the heck that meant. It took a few days, but Aleks came in one day after the surgery and fed me some ambrosia. The doctors were stunned. They were probably like "What the hell?! We can't be that awesome can we? …Can we?" Little did they, or will ever know is no, they weren't awesome in any way. They probably didn't know that though, which is ok I guess. As long as their patients are –ahem- _smart_ demigods, they won't have to fear about ruining their rep.

My mom and dad visited me every day for two hours. They were extremely relieved that I was going to be ok. My mom was in tears when she saw me. She threw her arms around my neck, before remembering that I was in the hospital for a reason. They sat next to my bed and we exchanged stories about our week. Their stories went something like "Oh yeah, I wish you could have been there! Ryan was so excited we had to drag him away from the video game store, even though he's way too old for us to tell him what to do…" My stories went along the lines of "Oh yeah, and last week I kinda got ran over by a car. No big deal though right? Man, you should have been there!"

I think it was on a Wednesday that they discharged me. Aleks said that I had been in the hospital for about a week, and we were going somewhere where I'd be safe. _Safe?_ I thought. _There was nowhere in the world a demigod like me would be safe. _Al must have noticed my distress, because he reached over and took my hand.

"It'll be ok. I promise." I gave him a look like _Seriously? PFFT you make me laugh. _He smiled and led me to his car, helping me in the front seat.

The car ride wasn't all that exciting. A few bumps and turns and such, but other than that, nothing special. I fell asleep a few times. Every time I did either traffic or a loud noise woke me up violently.

Once I finally got used to the movements of the car, I fell into a deep sleep that wouldn't be interrupted for a while.


End file.
